Saturday, November 19, 2011

Tak hit me up a couple of weeks back to model for the Mishka Fall look book. I've rode for Mishka for the past 4 years and they have always been very supportive so of course I was down. Tak told me who else was going to model and I knew the shoot would be a damn good time!

These projects are always a fun way to catch up with friends and meet new ones.

An old school messenger Spirit came along to shoot a time laps video of the whole shoot. Super solid guy, he has had his Cannondale track since 96'.

Jon Jon was getting into it.

We met at Affinity, this was on the way out to the location.

I ran into Julie walking by so I threw her a Mishka shirt, beanie and Tak's bike and asked her if she wanted to be in the shoot. She was into into it and pulled some sick track stands.

Victor is a NYC messenger legend and a hell of a guy, his personality both on and off the bike really show.

I asked Tak if it was cool to shoot some in process shots of the shoot, first question he asked was with what camera. Contax T-2 "Yes! Thank You!"

Fast Eddy was hanging out and directing, he said " hey Tak shoot me, no just me, with out the bike."

This was how the shoot looked from far away, we found a construction site and staple gunned some white paper up for the back round. Gorilla photo shoot!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Recently, a really good friend of mine Shawn and I rode a back way to Bear Mountain. I first met Shawn through the messenger community in 04' at the Westside Invite in Portland. He was the first person I met that was a track bike messenger and was branching out into road racing . I ran into him a couple of times in SF and lost touch. A couple of years back my friend Gina that owns King Kog told me she and Shawn were together. Two years later they have a beautiful baby girl Talula. I've been giving a hand along with others during the new addition of the family and it's been great spending time both on and off the bike.

Shawn has been really motivating and pushing me to ride more, we ride 2-3 times a week. This ride was challenging but beautiful like most things worth while.

This was during the climb up Bear Mountain, the climb was not that bad compared to the mountains we climbed before we even got here.

I decided to ride my C40 and break it in, one of my favorite bikes. The view is breathtaking but a reminder that your along way from home.

We descended down at speeds 40-50 mph staring at this view half way down.

I get this look a lot riding with Shawn, checking to see if I'm still there, lately I've been there and able to hang compared to when we first started to ride together. This guy is fast as hell and a VERY good climber. Come ride with us!

The back way to Bear Mountain is a longer ride, probably 70 miles compared to 50 miles on 9w but well worth the extra milage. You ride mountain ridges and ride by so many lakes with very little traffic.

A cold and a little fatigued photo of me, like a lot of things in life you have to suffer a bit to get to the good stuff, this was the last lake before we hit Bear. If you wanna ride and come with hit me up!

I've been posting way to many photos of my bikes and too little of the rides I've been doing on them, this is going to change. Expect lots of photos of bikes and snow.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

After building up my Ti Merckx, I fell in love with the way Ti rides. I came across this Ti Litespeed track frame and had never seen one before in my size so I swooped the opportunity to own one. They are super rare as Litspeed only built a small hand full. I plan on this being my race bike, the build now consist of parts I have been saving for a special build. Parts will be swapped as race season approaches but for now I'm super stoked on how this bike rides!

The steer tube is actually 1", I originally threw a Wound Up fork on it but the original owner had this Colnago track fork that was a tighter rake. Love the head badge. I tossed on a Dede Pista setup I ran on my Affinity Kissena wrapped in some deep sea fishing pole grip. Thanks Josh!

I'm very happy to have found these cranks and Chainring. Both are pretty rare and in perfect condition.
The finish matches the frame pretty well.

The only extra rear track wheel I had at the time of this build was a C Record "sheriff star", I'm saving this wheel for a different project, stay tuned.

The drop outs are massive on the frame. I'm running a All City rear cog, I've said this before but these gogs run so smooth and break in perfect. The chain is a KMC Lite, very nice combo. Right now I'm running 51/17.

The tube set is massively oversized to provide stiffness of a inherently soft, flexible metal.
I went with one a classic combo of a Thompson seat post and a Italia Flite Titanium.

The bottom bracket shell is really high making the stand over really tall. Notice how high the chain is from the chain stay.Prolly sold me these pedals a couple of years back for a great deal, still super smooth thanks man!

Over all the bike is on point, after I swap the wheels out this will be added to the permanent collection.

I have a couple of more bikes to share, all of these bikes as well as others will be displayed and for sale at a up coming project soon.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The guy's from TCB courier are always having a good time and making videos below is a new one, Hill bombing on office chairs. With some pretty close calls in there you can tell they were having a lot of fun. All jokes aside the service means biz. Check them out here:http://www.tcbcourier.com/Check out the older videos below as well.

Out of all of my bikes, I have owned this Daccordi the longest. This bike also started my love and collecting of Daccordi bicycles. A few years back I won a series called Tracklocross, it was a 4 part cross style race on track bikes on Randall's Island. The first place prize was a Continuum tack frame and fork. Jeff from Continuum had this frame in his shop when he first opened, I put a deposit down on the frame a month before the race. At the time I had 3 track bikes and did not need another, I went and talked with Jeff about the possibility of calling it even on this frame and fork instead of the track frame for my prize. He was all for it and knew how much I wanted this bike. Thanks again Jeff! I've messenger'ed delivered food and raced on this bike and love it. It will be in the permanent collection.

(click on photo to enjoy full size)

This bike has seen many different wheels and components but is close to the final build. I went with a mix of C Record and Chorus. Riser bars, MTB levers and BMX flats equal comfort.

Dave at Bike Works gave me a great deal on this first generation C Record rear.

I got these Chorus cranks at a local swap, they came off of a time trail bike so these are a perfect fit, they came with a 55 tooth big ring. BMX flat for comfort, might change this set up soon.

This had to happen, I finally found this water bottle NOS.

Love the seat tube cluster, these brakes usually don't work very well with road levers but work great with MTB levers. Thanks Jack Crank for a great deal.

The bike has seen lots of miles, these chips are probably from locking up. Down tube levers from Chari and Co and headset from King Kog.

Love this saddle, thanks Patrick! I had to cut down the length of seat post due to the s bend of the seat tube.

For wheels I went with Campy Shamal

The rear Shamal I found NOS. Love the hour glass shape of the rear hub.

This bike took a while to build up correctly as they usually do. Thanks to everybody who gave me a good a deal on components for this bike. I built Mary up a matching bike but more on that later, stay tuned.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Here is my Daccordi Time Trial bike, I have a couple of these but decided to keep this one traditional. For most of my bikes I run Campy but given the time period of the frame it was very common for racers to run Shimano on Italian frames so I went with a mix of Dura Ace and 600.

(click on photos to enjoy full size)

The frame is effectively a 54cm, the rear wheel is a HED and front is a ZIPP.

Shimano tri color 600 crankset

With Dura Ace

Mavic bars with a black Cinelli stem and Daccordi bartape

ZIPP hub

The paint job is FIRE

Oria tubing was used a lot during this time, after Fransisco Moser beat the one hour record on this tube set, many companies started using Oria.

The bike is a great wall hanger and occasional sunday rider, it would make a great funny bike. I have one built that I'll share soon. This one might be for sale, contact me if interested.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

This will be my last NACCC 2011 post, this batch is all the behind the scenes, extra and random stuff that went down in Austin. I met a ton of awesome people and hung out with some old friends.

(click on photos to enjoy full size)

The race course was a few miles outside of town directions were pretty easy but just in case someone made a helpful sign.

Chicago, Atlanta, Portland Philly, NYC, all hanging out at the track.

Chas' SIDI's broke a while back, this was his temporary solution for tension.

I met this guy, we started conversation over his water bottle, I had just purchased one. We talked a bit about our love for Campy and Italian bikes. He rode 200 miles that day just to come check out the race!

Austin didn't qualify this year, always check to see if there is a back side to your manifest.

A spectator found a box of puppies o the side of the road on her way to the race, Crihs, Kym and I were drooling over them. I already have one at home.

Lucas, a true man of leisure and adventure taking a break after filming. See the bridge in the back? He rode the tracks to check out the scenery before I took this.

Every year different cities put in a bid to determine what cities will host the race the next two years. Here we have NYC, Seattle, LA and Houston discussing the 2013 as next year will be in Richmond. I am proud to say my home town Seattle won the bid. Nice work Rob!

The next day was race day, on my way out to the course I ran into Austin changing a flat and getting some help from some locals.

One of the coolest goldsprints setups I've seen in a while.

Kym warming up Heather's legs.

Chas had his game face on!

The start of the race, no mercy!

This guy was from NYC, he was having a VERY good time showing some love.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and if you were in Austin the good times had, see ya in Richmond next year!